Centre clears Rs 90 crore for road projects in Arunachal Pradesh

ITANAGAR: The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) has cleared a total of about Rs 90 crore this fiscal for various road projects in Arunachal Pradesh.

This would be part of the total Rs 120.41 crore for 17 road projects for which state shares were cleared and utilisation certificates submitted to the ministry.

This was stated by DONER Secretary R Vijay Kumar, Joint Secretary A M Singh and NEC Joint Secretary V B Pathak during a discussion on various road projects with state PWD Minister Gojen Gadi in New Delhi yesterday.

With hardly six working months in the state and one month gone, delay in release of funds is likely to escalate the project costs and would require re-submission of the projects, Gadi said to justify his plea, official sources said here today.

Gadi had received assurance from Union MoS (Home) Kiren Rijiju for release of central share for 17 NLCPR projects after submitting the DPRs prepared by PWD (Highway) western and eastern zone chief engineers at Ziro in Lower Subansiri district on September 26 last.

On Gadi's request, the officials of the DONER Ministry assured to find out the cause behind inordinate delay in sanctioning of the long pending 35-km Koyu-Ego road (Phase-II) for which a proposal worth Rs 96 crore was submitted.

"We will take it up immediately," they assured. The ministry has already released 60 per cent of the total funds earmarked for Arunachal, Kumar told Gadi, sources added.